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This week's puzzle by Brummie was a real treat, with lots of humour and some stand-out clues.

FOI was 10a followed by the crossing 8d.

In terms of difficulty I'd say it's at the higher end of the scale.

There is a theme related to13d, 2d and 22d.

If you do get stuck there is a hidden in the acrosses and a long anagram in the downs.

COD - 3 way tie this week with the witty 13a, 24a and 11,27.

There are a couple of US references that should please our cousins across the pond, one of which I only heard of when I started watching baseball.

How many themed clues did you spot? Let us know in the comments and, as always, if you do get stuck, just post your query on here - there's always someone around to help.

Thanks to Brummie for a great start to the weekend.

Stay safe:-)

Hi Brendan,

Thanks to Brummie. I found the implementation of the theme ingenious. Knowing Brummie, I wonder if there are some ironic thematics, for instance 9?
But as a solver I didn't enjoy this as much as most Prizes for some reason...didn't need the theme to solve any clues, and it just dragged a bit. Difficulty-wise I'd say slightly easier than Prize norm, but YMMV (your mileage may vary) of course. Needed Google for 1 and 21.

FOI 9, LOI 22a. The spelling of either 22a or the "rather twee" part of the wordplay seems a little off, but I don't have Chambers, and perhaps am going by US spelling. Or my solution could be off...

COD 23. While the grid overall is very clever, not many clues knocked me out.

Hi Geeker,

It's funny you should mention 9a, I thought exactly the same and if you Google the answer with his name you'll get several hits.

A few new words I had to check in Chambers, namely 1d, 21a and your COD 23d.

Hi,
I agree with Brendan that this is at the harder end. It's been a bit of a slog. My last one is 23d for which I have E_S_E_
Can't see anything that would fit the possible definitions. Any hints?
Thanks
Tim

Tim, your first crosser is not correct. I had a similar problem (see my comment about 22a), wound up reversing two letters in 22a.

23 parses as 3 (uncommon acronym for "controversial treatment") inside 3 (common word for "collection"), defn. "poetic lines".

Ah yes I see the problem now in 22A. Thank you so much Geeker!

A tricky challenge I thought, but good fun.
I agree there is something not quite right about 22a. Letters 5 and 6 seem to be the wrong way around for the wordplay to work. Chambers not offering any alternative spellings to help here as far as I can see.

call me annoyed. i always look at the clues that give me first letters first, so wrote in 1d, 13d, and 24d. unfortunately the last doesn't seem to be PERM after all....
better answer than the actual one!

That was my first thought too, Chris! I had to solve 24a first (a word we’ve had in Peer Review in recent times)